Matablog

Archive for February, 2013

Sonically, of course. Much in the same fashion they’ve been known to destroy a hullabaloo here and there. Because they’ve scheduled a handful of free, all ages instores along their upcoming tour. And that fucking rules.

Dig it. And be sure to dig their record NOW. And then buy it as soon as you can. And let it destroy you.

Hello all. A pair of Twin Cities radio sessions is coming your way from our friend Kurt Vile, and you can listen to them no matter where you are through the magic of the internet. In just a few moments (around 1:45PM EST/12:45PM CST, to be not-very-exact), Mr. Vile will be live on the air on Radio K, which can be listened to at radiok.org or at 770AM or 110.7FM on the radio dial if you live in beautiful snowy Minneapolis.

Off the back of their February 19 release of You’re Nothing, Iceage will be hitting the road soon with a hefty tour across Europe and North America.

We’ve already announced the February through April dates and now we’re happy to announce that the band will be coming back through the States & Canada in the much warmer month of June, kicking off at Austin’s Chaos in Tejas. Catch them if you can.

This week two of my personal favorites from Matador’s long-to-quite-long history (the band Silkworm and Belle & Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister album) are being celebrated on the silver-y looking screen sitting on my desk at work.

First, the long-in-the-works Silkworm documentary “Couldn’t You Wait? The Story Of Silkworm” by filmmaker Seth Pomeroy is finally completed and available for stream and purchase here. I will take this opportunity to tell you how important this band has been to me: Silkworm has been incredibly important to me, and will always rule.

Second, Pitchfork has debuted an amazing entry in their Classic (as in classic albums) documentary series about If You’re Feeling Sinister, an album I can’t really talk about here…it’s too personal, I’m sorry. I just cant.

It was the 40th anniversary of the release of Can’s Ege Bamyasi LP (an album known to me in my youth as Ege Bamyasi Okraschoten, because I didn’t know anything), and WEEK-END Fest was happening in Cologne. The dates were November 30 through December 2, 2012, and the festival featured artists such as Ian Svenonious, Justus Köhnke, Alexis Taylor (of Hot Chip), Scritti Politti, Deerhoof and Stephen Malkmus.

WEEK-END Fest co-curator Jan Lankisch (of Tomlab Records decided to ask Stephen, currently residing in Germany, whether he wanted to play the entirety of Ege Bamyasi with a band of German musicians Jan had rounded up. And Steve loved the idea. So after a few rehearsals, Steve was joined by Sebastian Blume (synths), Felix Hedderich (bass), Jan Philipp Janzen (drums) and Phillip Tielsch (guitar) for a truly magical & wondrous performance of one of the greatest albums of all time. It took place on December 2 at the Alte Kranhalle in Cologne, and was committed to tape by the band. The sound quality is fantastic; the performance jumps out of the grooves and bubbles its way through your stereo.

We are releasing the LP as a 3500-copy limited edition on green vinyl for Record Store Day, April 20, 2013. (Domino will be releasing it on red vinyl in Europe.) The hand-printed silkscreened sleeve was designed by David Shrigley, who also designed the poster for the event, inspired by the original artwork for Ege Bamyasi. It is being printed in Germany by Slowboy.

We’re truly honored to be part of this special collaboration between tons of talented artists.

“This was the first Can LP I bought brand-new (Torquay, July 1972), and it is still my favourite.”

– Julian Cope, Krautrocksampler

“Ege Bamyasi was one of those marginal cut-out LPs (along with the 1st Stooges, Rhinoceros, Ambergris a.o.) that you’d find in the bargain bins of department stores in the early 70s. For kids with no money and an allure to weirdness these cheapos were significant listens. Ege Bamyasi with its okra can cover and live circus rock shot on the back was completely singular. And it sounded cool as shit. I still check it as one of the top 10 greatest rock LPs of all time, and it remains a perpetual inspiration.”

…two whole weeks before release date (March 5). Plenty of time to be sold on the self-titled album’s brilliance (or alternately, an opportunity several days in to turn off the computer and get some fresh air — you could probably use a meal, too).

(video courtesy KEXP. The entire Jan. 18 session is available for viewing here)

This past Saturday night, Yo La Tengo completed the first run of North American tour in support of the universally hailed ‘Fade’ with a show at New York City’s Town Hall described by by more than one person as “triumphant”, “stunning” and “kind of long”. Though Georgia, Ira and James are off to Europe this week for some of the continent’s most anticipated shows this year, they’ll be back in the USA (and Vancouver!) this April and May for the dates below, followed by July shows in outdoor venues with Belle & Sebastian.

With the exception of the Baltimore date on April 26 supporting Beach House, for the April/May headlining dates Yo La Tengo will be the only band playing. As with the January/February shows, they’ll be playing two sets each night with a brief intermission.

If an outdoor festival with a tremendous bill isn’t to your liking (allergies, tendency to fall asleep behind the wheel — BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME), you can catch Yo La Tengo’s live score for “The Love Song Of Buckminster Fuller” on April 9 and 10, at The Kitchen (512 W. 19th St., NYC) with performances at 7 and 9pm each night. Tickets are available here.

(photo from Saturday night’s Town Hall show by Taleen Dersdepanian, qromag.com)

Along their current two-set tour (Yo La Tengo opens for Yo La Tengo), Yo La Tengo have dropped into a handful of the nation’s finest non-commercial radio stations, proving that the radio sometimes doesn’t suck. Today they’re over at WNYC.

Head over to soundcheck.org at 2pm EST to catch them live on the web, then tune into WNYC (93.9 FM if you’re in the New York ara and Soundcheck.org elsewhere) at 9pm EST tonight.

Yo La Tengo ‘Fade‘ is out now… they’ve got two more dates on this tour (but promise they’ll be back out soon). See you there

From the weird/cool/whoa file: on Tuesday Brooklyn Vegan correctly pointed out that, in the bio for Chelsea Light Moving’s upcoming album, Thurston Moore threatens that “the band is ready to detonate any birthday party, wedding or hullabaloo in any country, planet or stratosphere that doesn’t support right wing extremist NRA sucking bozo-ology.”

In a moment that may go down in trolling history, the comments section went ablaze with suggestions for venues, houses and parties Thurston and the band could play. Late Tuesday Thurston himself took the comments section at BV (twice!) to state that the band is indeed up to detonate some poor sap’s shebang.

Set your eyes to stunned – the new Esben and the Witch video for “When That Head Splits” is a psychadelic animated wonder, created by director Rafael Bonilla Jr, it uses almost 9,000 still frames and premieres today via Tumblr.

Currently on tour in Europe, they return to the UK for their largest headline show to date at London’s Scala (Tickets), before making their long-awaited return to the USA and Canada. The band have recently shared a track-by-track of their new album Wash The Sins Not Only The Face on their Facebook page, whilst director Ralph Bonilla had these words about the video:

“I started first with the painting that was part of the inspiration for the song, Salvador Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus and the accompanying poem. One of my favorite things about Dali is that his paintings are full of hidden meanings and symbols, so I tried to do the same. I combined this with lyrics from the song, as well as an idea the band hand about a girl who gradually transforms into the landscape she’s traveling through. The girl in the video is a combination of the nude women and the dog in the Dali painting, and as she travels through different regions of this strange alien planet, her body transforms along with it. I saw the other characters and the different locations in the story as reflections of her own self, until finally in the last segment of the video, she ends up in a place made entirely out of flesh and blood, literally inside her own body. Most of the video was accomplished using plasticine models ranging from 4in. – 1ft., which were fitted with wire armatures. The backgrounds are either digital paintings or watercolors. The final product contains almost 9,000 frames that were animated by hand.”

Kurt Vile’s new album WAKIN ON A PRETTY DAZE will come out on April 9. He recorded it with producer John Agnello at a multitude of different studios throughout the Northeast in the second half of last year. It is a 69-minute long double album.

Check out the opening track WAKIN ON A PRETTY DAY. You can download it as an MP3 or listen on YouTube, accompanied by outtake footage from the Steve Powers (ESPO) documentary about the album cover mural. (Note: this is NOT the music video. The real video will be revealed in good time.)

Deluxe double vinyl gatefold with different cover depicting the blank building wall before Steve Powers painted it, and including a sticker sheet of the Powers paintings so that you can customize your own album artwork. This version includes the printed innersleeves and lyric sheet, but is also on limited, numbered BLUE VINYL.

First edition CD will be in a mini-gatefold like the LP cover, with the disc in a printed innersleeve in one pocket, and fold-out lyric sheet and insert in the other pocket.

The iTunes preorder, available as of tomorrow, February 12, will include an instant download of “Wakin On A Pretty Day” PLUS a preorder-only bonus track entitled “The Ghost Of Freddy Roach.” You can only get this bonus track by preordering the album at iTunes. You’ll receive the track on the April 9 release date along with the full album.

More news. If you’re in New York City, we’re going to be heading over to the legendary Electric Lady Studios tomorrow (Tuesday, February 12) to listen to the album in all its glory and have some drinks, specifically a custom-made cocktail entitled the Pretty Daze. Interested in attending? Head over to Brooklyn Vegan for a chance to win! Space is extremely limited!

photo by Shawn Brackbill

Kurt isn’t just releasing a record, he’s also touring, with the Violators backing him up:

As you might have seen drifting around the internet, Philadelphia’s own Kurt Vile has put a less than subtle indicator towards a new record on the side of an abandoned building in the city’s Northern Liberties.

A lesser known fact is that the mural was created by renowned street artist Steve Powers (aka ESPO) who, along with Kurt, talks us through the painting of the mural in the video below.

Last month, Yo La Tengo played before a packed, rapturous house at Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live as part of WXPN’s Free At Noon series. As is their custom, the good folks at WXPN have taken the recording of that show and turned it into a segment for their popular syndicated World Cafe program. The show airs today at 2:00PM EST, and can be enjoyed at the WXPN website, or on your local NPR affiliate as seen on World Cafe’s website, or listen to the audio stream on NPR’s site when it’s posted later today. If you live in Philadelphia, it’s a little less complicated: just tune in at 88.5FM.

During his last jaunt across these United States, A.C. Newman swung by Philadelphia’s WXPN to record a session for the World Cafe program. The fruits of that session will finally be yours to enjoy today at 2:00PM EST. If you would like to partake of said fruits, click on over to the WXPN website, or check World Cafe’s website to see if one of the over 200 stations that airs the show is in your neck of the woods, OR listen to the audio stream on NPR’s site later in the day, OR if you live in the lovely city of Philadelphia you can tune in at 88.5FM.

Mr. Newman’s most recent album, Shut Down The Streets, is available for a variety of reasonable prices on a variety of equally reasonable formats on our webstore.

For the past few years, Devon Welsh’s been recording solo material composed between rural Ontario and Montreal, and collaborating in production & performance with Matthew Otto under the guise Majical Cloudz. This spring, we at Matador have the distinct pleasure to bring his next full-length to record stores worldwide.

It’s been written of Majical Cloudz: Their performance is deeply expressive — strong vocals sit on top of washes of white noise, filtered synths and sparse thuds. The songs are intensely lyrical, oriented around themes of death, patience, family and desire. The live show celebrates the joy in sadness and the value of a shared musical experience.

We’ll have more details on a full-length release set for this spring shortly, but we can tell you that you’ll be hearing this song on it. Download “Turns Turns Turns” (as previously heard on a 2012 Arbutus/Merok EP) HERE.